At the international flight arrivals gate, beyond several layers of crowds.
A small figure stood on tiptoes, craning his neck to look toward the gate, his face full of anxiety, afraid he might miss the person.
“He should be here by now, right?”
People were already coming out of the gate one after another, but he still hadn’t seen Lin Zhicheng’s figure.
Bai Yao looked up at the screen above, then down at the flight information his mother had sent him on WeChat.
He cross-referenced them, confirming he hadn’t come to the wrong place.
“It’s been over ten or twenty minutes, and he still hasn’t come out?”
Watching more and more travelers leave and the crowd at the gate gradually thinning out, Bai Yao realized he might have actually lost track of his cousin.
He paced back and forth anxiously.
The thought of his mother scolding him later made him frown and bite his nails.
‘Wait a little more, wait a little more…’
Although Bai Yao usually seemed cold and introverted, he actually had a quick temper and was completely impatient.
But no matter how anxious he got, he usually handled it on his own.
“It’s over.”
The people at the gate were almost all gone, leaving only Bai Yao…
Just then, a figure dragging two oversized suitcases and carrying a huge hiking backpack appeared in his line of sight.
Bai Yao froze for a moment, looking into the distance with some doubt, unsure.
Wasn’t his cousin supposed to have bleached hair?
When the figure got closer, he finally recognized that fairly familiar face.
A rush of relief and joy surged through him.
Bai Yao excitedly ran to the railing, raising his hand high and waving vigorously.
But the cousin also looked hesitant, staring uncertainly at Bai Yao.
‘Who’s this girl? Looks a bit familiar? Could it be my cousin?’
He politely nodded and walked out of the railed corridor.
The girl trotted over to meet him.
“Chengcheng Bro!”
His cousin’s full name was Lin Zhicheng, and his nickname was Chengcheng.
Bai Yao usually called him Chengcheng Bro.
They had been close as kids, like real brothers, but for some reason, his cousin had dropped out of high school, became a gangster with bleached hair, and drifted through society.
Their contact diminished after that.
A few years ago, his aunt and uncle opened a restaurant abroad and dragged his cousin overseas to help.
In the following years, the cousins had no contact at all—not even a single WeChat message.
Lin Zhicheng felt like he’d seen a ghost.
Several years since they last met, and that middle schooler who used to be 165 cm was still 165 cm—hadn’t grown an inch?
Back then, Bai Yao had the short hair required by his middle school, and his cute childhood face had been mostly ruined by teenage acne.
Now, his hair covered his ears, his face was delicate, his figure slender, and there even seemed to be some slight curves at his chest? Standing there, he looked just like a nervous, flustered short-haired girl!
“Ya… Yao Yao?” Lin Zhicheng gave Bai Yao a once-over before nodding stiffly. “Long time no see.”
Bai Yao was at a loss from being scrutinized, his face bearing an awkward but polite smile.
His toes curled inside his shoes.
“Mhm, yeah…”
He glanced at Lin Zhicheng’s two big suitcases and huge backpack, then stepped forward with feigned enthusiasm.
“Let me help you with one?”
“Sure, it’s a bit heavy. Be careful.”
“No problem.”
Bai Yao took the suitcase handle and gave it a light pull, but barely moved it.
He could only force an embarrassed laugh.
“Yeah, it’s a bit heavy…”
They hadn’t seen each other for years.
He had long lost the childish affection he used to have for his cousin—only a deep sense of unfamiliarity remained.
He pulled the suitcase behind him, and the pretense of enthusiasm faded into his usual coldness.
‘At least I got him picked up.’
Once they got into the ride-hailing car, Bai Yao finally had a chance to secretly observe Lin Zhicheng sitting next to him.
His cousin had changed so much…
His skin was visibly worse; even in the dim light, he could faintly see enlarged pores.
His hair was shorter, no longer the flashy bleached color of before, replaced by a more subdued brown.
He seemed much more muscular, with the bulging muscles of his arms visible under his short sleeves.
But his facial structure and features were still good—still quite handsome underneath it all.
Like a weathered, older handsome guy?
‘Hmm, not as handsome as Qiu Ye!’
Bai Yao felt a bit nervous and instinctively wanted to close his knees, but in front of a relative, he kept a wide, masculine sitting posture, trying to act as manly as possible in every move.
“Where are you staying tonight?”
Lin Zhicheng suddenly asked.
Bai Yao snapped to attention and quickly answered.
“Uh… a hotel. I booked it.”
[Finally getting a hotel room together! And it’s with your long-lost older cousin! Are you so desperate that you don’t even care about ethics anymore? Can’t Dahuama and Paoji at home satisfy you? Or are you going to charge toward the Thousand-man Slayer achievement?]
[Remember to be safe—a body in its thirties can’t handle this much trouble. Reward: 100 Cash]
Bai Yao’s fist clenched tight.
The system’s AI voice even sounded a bit resigned!
The task was just to be safe?
Wasn’t that perverted obsessed woman going a bit too far?
Charging toward a thousand kills?
That implied she had participated in countless group activities in her younger days!
“What’s wrong?”
He quickly shook his head and looked down at his phone.
Although they were still a bit distant, Lin Zhicheng weighed his words and took the initiative to ask warmly, “So, you’re a freshman now, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve gotten a lot prettier… well, more handsome in just a few years?” Lin Zhicheng first praised, then teased, “Got a girlfriend in college yet?”
“No.”
But the system kept tempting and goading him, trying to get him to find a boyfriend.
It even twisted normal roommate and friend relationships into some kind of rising feelings.
Bai Yao felt it was bad to just let himself be questioned, so he followed the topic.
“What about you?”
“I came back this time for arranged dating.”
Lin Zhicheng sighed helplessly.
“Otherwise, I would have just come back for the New Year.”
“Arranged… dating?”
Bai Yao remembered that Lin Zhicheng wasn’t much older than him—probably only around twenty-four or twenty-five? That wasn’t exactly the age for arranged dating.
“So early?”
“My mom’s been pressuring me. No choice.”
Lin Zhicheng leaned back and sighed with resentment.
“Before this, she cried and threw tantrums and even threatened to cut ties with me to push me into marriage.”
Probably no one to talk to abroad, he couldn’t help but say a bit more.
“I was dating someone before—a foreign student. I really liked her. But she kept finding faults and insisted I break up. Now she’s pushing me into arranged dating.”
Just listening made Bai Yao feel helpless.
He had thought his cousin was doing well abroad.
Maybe because of his cousin’s openness, the distance between them quickly shrunk, and he started talking more.
“If you were in university, you’d only be a year or two into graduation… why the rush?”
“Exactly. So going to school is useful—at least you don’t get married too early.”
Lin Zhicheng patted Bai Yao on the shoulder.
“Study hard, go to grad school or something.”
Bai Yao’s body stiffened.
He forced himself to bear the discomfort of having his boundaries crossed and discreetly shifted his butt to create some distance.
“Uh… we should be almost there soon.”
Wrong gender pronouns for Bai Yao too many times to point out…….
i have fixed it .